swag ~ for free

Do you search the web?

Of course you do.

Do you like free gift cards?

Duh ~ who doesn't?

If you do your searching through Swag Bucks, you can earn "swag bucks" that can be redeemed for tons of things, including merchandise and gift cards. I like to redeem my bucks for Amazon gift cards.

 

It's easy. When you are ready to search, go to swagbucks.com and make sure you are logged in. Then, search away. The bucks are awarded randomly at different amounts, but they add up. You can also take part in daily polls, surveys, watch videos, etc. to earn more bucks. When I am awarded bucks for searching, they are usually anywhere from 5 bucks to 13 bucks (but higher bucks have been awarded). The daily poll earns 1 buck. A $5 Amazon gift card can be redeemed for 450 Swag Bucks. It might take a little while to earn some bucks, but you were going to search the web anyway, weren't you? 

When you rush over to Swag Bucks to sign up, be sure to click the banner in this post and I can get referral bucks when you get bucks. 

Help a girl out. Right now I'm trying to earn bucks to get some teacher books I'm wanting to read.

What are you waiting for? Your bucks await you! 

Go ahead, click the banner.

Thanks.

    

menu plan monday on a tuesday

One of my goals this summer is to try more new recipes. After the orange chicken fail from last week, I was hoping to redeem myself in the kitchen. I tried two new recipes ~ creamy black bean salsa chicken in the crock pot and Hawaiian Grilled Chicken. I'd like to make some changes to the Hawaiian grilled chicken so there's a sauce for the rice. But, overall, both were a hit and will be repeated. The salsa chicken made a lot, so I used some of the left overs for chicken quesadillas for lunch. And there's still more chicken left.

We have several nights of dance recital practice this week, so we are having some things Greg can help with or quick things.

We are having:

• ribs (crock pot) & mashed potatoes
• king ranch chicken
• chicken & rice soup
• chicken cordon bleu
• chili
• tostadas
• cheesy chicken lasagna

What are you having? Head on over to orgjunkie.com to see what everyone else is having.

           

cousin time

Sisters are built-in friends. Friends who bicker with each other, scream at each other, argue with each other, and stomp away from each other. Friends who tattle on each other. Friends who con each other into doing their chores. Friends who slam doors on each other. 

But, I digress.

The next best thing to sisters is cousins. 

Gianna is in town for the summer so we had an impromptu sleepover last weekend after a family dinner out. Who needs a toothbrush, right? 

And then there were water games the next day.

Where'd your teeth go, little girl?

They tried to play with water balloons, but couldn't find the nozzle. No worries ~ water is water on a hot day.

Here's to a summer full of sister time and cousin time.

With lots of laughing.

And no fighting.

       

instagram friday ~ summer is great!

It's that time of year ~ the girls are in the midst of dress rehearsals for their big gig on the big stage. I love the excitement of the culmination of a dance season's worth of hard work.

I love to use the crock pot to make dinner. When I'm working, I love to come home to dinner almost done and smelling great. Most of the time the crock pot gets its action from making roast. I don't use it as much as I'd like so I'm going to try some new recipes this summer. For Father's Day, I thought I'd make an orange chicken recipe I found. Now it wasn't going to be Panda Express worthy, but it had great promise.

It smelled good.

It looked ok.

It didn't taste quite right.

We all took some bites and tried to warm up to it.

We ordered pizza.

Crock pot fail.

Another cavity-free visit to the dentist. Whew!

Most weeks, Tuesday is grocery shopping day. Greg drops all of his girls off at school and then does the shopping. Since I'm off for summer, we had a little grocery shopping date. It's hard, but try to keep up with our rock star lifestyle!

After I took this picture, Greg commented that it looks like all we eat is junk food. While we do love soda and Tootie Fruities, there's healthy stuff in there too.

Hairapy.

By myself.

Need I say more?

It's also this time of year.

And it will get worse.

Every day when Greg gets home from work, I ask, "How was your day ~ and don't say hot." To this he always replies, "Hot."

While I don't enjoy tipping that century mark on the thermometer, I do love summer. One of my favorite things is that it stays light so late. It lulls me into a false sense of time ~ more light equals more time to get stuff done. The two summers we visited Alaska, I felt invincible! Sadly, we all know what happens when my mind gets involved in time trickery.

Not much gets done.

Ah ~ such is summer.

 

Go here. Read. Link up.

      

instagram friday ~ summer's here

This is our first week of summer vacation! I cannot be more thrilled to be on summer vacation. The end of this year whooped my butt. My class was a good one overall, but they gave me a run for my money there at the end. 

Greg also had this week off, so we've been doing a lot of hanging out and doing a whole bunch of nothing. Sunday we took the kids to a new swimming pool in our area. They had a great time swimming and going down the water slide, while Greg and I people-watched. We were not short of conversation regarding what we saw.

The week started with working on a custom order for ten pouches.

Tuesday we stepped out to take care of our civic duty and run some errands. We took the kids with us and let them stand behind the voting machine with us to see what goes on. Hopefully we are instilling in them a sense of civic duty and pride in the responsibility.

Greg's favorite breakfast is bacon with biscuits and gravy. On days off, I'm happy to oblige. These cookie sheets also saw some cookie baking action later in the day. That boy is lucky! Nevermind he's been waiting weeks for homemade cookies. He's just lucky.

Greg has been working on his genealogy this week & announced that he wanted to go to the oldest cemetery in town to take pictures of the grave stones. Always up for an outing, we tagged along. After I took this picture, Heather asked me if I wanted her to work up a tear or two for another picture. Irreverent!

As the kids and I wandered around the grave stones, we wondered about the people buried underneath our feet. What were their lives like? What was it like for the woman buried next to her husband who lived nearly 60 years longer than him?

While Greg uploaded pictures and did more research, I bugged him kept him company and worked on some cards. It's been a while since I've spent some time with the paper crafts. That job of mine insists on keeping me busy!

Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'.... (If that song gets stuck in your head, you're welcome.) I've kind of been on the computer forever this morning. I unwittingly got sucked into the time vortex of the net. It might be time to do something semi-productive with this day. Or not. It's summer.

Do you use Instagram? What is your favorite filter? I am drawn to Earlybird, but try to give the others a chance as well. I like Brennan and Hefe too.

Head on over to Life.Rearranged to see other InstaFriday posts.